Short Answer Questions

1. Where does Paz state that the Mexican's indifference hides his life force?

2. Chapter Three begins with the great effect that fiestas and public celebrations have. What is this effect?

3. In Paz's opinion, when is a person most likely to see himself as precious and unique?

4. Other than solitude, what does the Mexican often feel in relation to other peoples?

5. What mentality does Paz attribute to the Mexican?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did the Aztecs view sin? How does that idea explain the Conquest? What enormous change did Catholicism introduce?

2. What is dissimulation? How does it compare to lying? How does it affect the Mexican's idea of himself?

3. What mutual problem do both the Mexican and the North American face? What is the solution to that problem?

4. What is the world of terrorism like? How is it different from the past world of conquest and war?

5. How do Mexicans view their bodies? How does their view contribute to their wish for privacy?

6. When does Paz say that a nation questions itself? Is it necessary?

7. How is the modern murderer different from a murderer of the past? How has modernity contributed to that difference?

8. What group of people did the author have in mind as he wrote the book? How and why did those people become important to him?

9. Who is the Chingada? What relation does she hold to every Mexican, whether male or female?

10. In the author's parable, who is Nobody? Is it possible for Nobody to break the progression of his existence? Why or why not?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Find the deaths that are mentioned in the book. According to the Mexican criterion for a worthy death - the death suits the life - how many of those people died a worthy death? How many of them died a death that did not suit their lives?

Essay Topic 2

What dualities did Sor Juana represent (philosophical, religious, gender-based)? What lasting influence did she have?

Essay Topic 3

Use this quote as the foundation for your essay: "We have been expelled from the center of the world, and are condemned to search for it through jungles and deserts or in the underground mazes of the labyrinth.